Pages

Make Pasta At Home Using Hand Crank Pasta Maker

My wife Melanie and I made a couple batches of pasta the other day using our hand crank pasta maker. This is very easy and fun for the family. It is also healthier for you because you know what goes into the pasta.

Homemade pasta is fun and healthy. You put the ingredients in yourself so you know it is healthy for you. Plain pasta is not worth making if you conisider time and cost but it is fun to make. When you get into mixing in herbs and other ingredients for specialty pastas then you are starting to see a savings. But if you are making pasta to save money, forget it.

We are using the Imperia hand crank pasta maker with its included cutting attachment. With the attachment in the box you can make spaghetti and noodles which remind me of chicken soop noodles. There are many attachments available for this machine though which will allow you to make just about any type of pasta that you like.

First you take 2 cups of flour (for a smaller batch) and mix in some water until the dough sticks together well. You want it to hold together but not be sticky. Let it sit for 10 minutes.

While the dough is resting you can set up the pasta maker. You will need a lot of space to work because both the dough and the finished pasta will have to dry. The dough strips will take up some counter space. We used our entire dining room table.

Cut up your dough into small batches. We found that cutting it into 8 pieces made our work easier. Too much dough at one time makes for a very long strip of dough which is hard to handle.

Set the pasta maker roller to the widest setting. Then put the dough into the feeder and roll it out. Powder it on both sides with flour to prevent sticking. Then set the rollers to the next smaller setting. Repeat the procedure until you have the dough rolled out thin.

Making homemade pasta

I then coated the dough sheet with flour and set it aside to dry for a little while. The instruction manual suggests 10 minutes. So while you process the rest of the dough this will be drying. By the time you are done processing the dough, you can start cutting the first sheet.

Finally we had all the dough rolled out and drying.

Laying out the dough strips to dry

Next we slid on the cutter attachment. This just slides onto the top of the pasta maker and then you move the handle to the cutter that you want. Each attachment has two cutters built into it. We chose the wider noodles for now.

Take a sheet of dough and feed it into the cutter while cranking the handle. It helps to have an assistant catch the noodles which come out the back of the cutter. This helps keep the noodles flat so you can put them onto the drying rack easier. Otherwise the noodles fall into a bunch on the table and are a mess to sort out.

Cutting homemade pasta noodles

Once you have processed a few sheets of dough it goes easier. I got to the point where I could do it myself. I cranked the machine with one hand while catching the noodles with the other.

When you cut a batch of noodles it helps to put them on a noodle drying rack. This is a series of wood dowels that you hang the noodles onto. There they stay until they harden and are dry.

Drying noodles on a rack

When the noodles are dry you can break them up into the length that you like. It took our noodles two days to dry. This will vary depending on the temperature and humidity in your home.

We also made a batch of spaghetti. Melanie mixed up dough with oregano and basil from our own garden. This is where it gets interesting and cost saving. When you start to use your own herbs and spices the value of the finished product goes up.

Finished homemade pasta

Melanie cooked up a batch of our noodles. Well, she ended up cooking the entire batch. This made four total meals though for us.

One thing about our homemade noodles. They cooked in literally one minute flat. Once you bring the water to a boil and put in the noodles, they are cooked almost immediately. It is important that you pay attention to the noodles while they are cooking so that you do not over cook them.

I was thinking this would make awesome camping, hiking and survival noodles. You can make your own pouches with herbs, spices and dried vegetables in a vacuum sealer bag. Just add boiling water and in a minute you have a fully cooked meal. I will try this one day and make a video and article on it.

Our dinner was very good and fun to eat because we make them ourselves.

Making pasta at home is quite fun. It brings you together and you have the satisfaction of eating something that you made yourself.